Nightmare Reborn
by tygh12
Summary: Chapter 1 tells of how the Capitol came back into power, and from chapter 2 on it's the actual hunger games. Katniss's daughter, Rue, is selected to go to the 76th hunger games, and it is even more harsh than before because the Capitol wants revenge on what the districts had done to them...
1. Prologue

The new capitol, which used to be the rebels, has been in power for on hundred years. The year is 100 A.P, after peace. The Queen of the capitol is Katniss Everdeen, the master of the long-forgotten hunger games, and the spirit of the rebellion. Ruling for a hundred years, living on a newly invented potion that lets you live for 500 years, she has reigned well until the old Capitol decides to finally get revenge...


	2. Chapter 1: The Old Capitol Returns

The members who attended the government meeting immediately knew they were in trouble when they saw the jabberjay spying on their meeting from the bushes outside. Anxious voices shouted commands for aircraft to be launched after the jabberjay, who had already taken off with vital information on the government's plans of power. Katniss Everdeen told everyone to calm down.

"Everyone, listen up. We must not stop that jabberjay, but we must follow it. There might be hidden old capitol rebels among the old districts, and we must find them to stop them from gaining control again." she commanded while running and thinking about her daughter, rue._ Don't worry, Katniss. You taught her how to fight!_ she thought. Unlike most monarchs and rulers, Katniss liked going into the action herself. She boarded her personal silent hovercraft, and took off alone. Quietly, her aircraft glided incredibly fast, past the speed of sound and caught up to the jabberjay. She locked her cameras onto the jabberjay to ensure that it didn't escape. On the screens that monitored the cameras that looked behind the aircraft, she saw the other aircrafts following her lead. There were two in total. One was piloted by his husband Peeta Mellark, and the other by the best pilot she had, Adam.

After a long flight, the jabberjay finally started to descend, and suddenly folded its wings and plunged at high speed at the ground, spreading it at the last millisecond and showing the magnificent gold feathers underneath its wings. It dodged underneath a pile of rubble. Katniss hovered her aircraft just high enough the ground to not disturb the environment, and put the aircraft into self hovering mode. She let the ladders out of the aircraft's door underneath, and climbed down. The others followed her lead. Katniss told Peeta and Adam to stay behind because they were too loud. They were offended, but didn't show it. She used her hunter's tread and carefully moved towards the hole the jabberjay had gone through, avoiding all objects, such as sticks and stones, that would make a single noise.

At last she reached the hole. Just as Katniss had expected, the place had signs of recent activity and people living here. There was a ladder at the entrance, and it lead down a very thick pipe into the sewers. She silently climbed down, and halfway she stopped abruptly. The place was no longer 'the sewers' any more. The floor was covered in smooth white marble, and... a capitol seal.

Her sensitive instincts told her that she shouldn't go anymore, but she was curious and took one more step. Immediately the alarms sounded and urgent voices started muttering, "That way! Intruder!" The last thing she saw was a person with a jabberjay perched up on his arm before she bolted up the ladder again, faster than anyone else could have possibly done. Although she was a hundred and seventeen years old, the potion also made the stages of life longer and better. She still had her old look, and stuck to the district-twelve hairstyle, a plain braid.

She met up with Adam and Peeta outside, and the look on her face told them what was going on. They rushed back to their hovercrafts and climbed up. As fast as sound, they hurried back to their capitol headquarters.

Katniss arranged another government meeting, and this time a very serious one. She explained everything that had happened and what she saw. The commander of the army looked confident. He said;

"We'll send in two squadrons of our specially-trained-for-very-important-emergencies officers, and I bet they'll clear out the putrid rat hole! Two squadrons! That's hell of a lot of power! 16 well trained soldiers!"

"Ok, so you do that. But we also need to prepare a-" replied Katniss.

"LOOK!" Pointed out Adam. Since the Capitol building was on the side of the city, the side closest to the district, they could oversee everything that was happening. At first it seemed a massive black carpet of was moving magically by itself over the districts, but Katniss drew out her binoculars, and informed that the 'black carpet' was in fact made up of individual capitol peacekeepers, dressed in black and not peacekeepers anymore. They now had the word 'Peacemakers' imprinted on their uniforms. Behind the vast army of peacemakers, the army showed off their new build tanks. You couldn't have expected more, but then came the aircraft and the jeeps. Katniss hadn't noticed, but what led the whole army were terror-striking muttations.

"I don't think all your squadrons would be able to beat them." Katniss pointed out.

"Um...yeah...I realized." the commander replied.

"How did they store all those vehicles and muttations without us noticing?" exhaled Peeta, face-palming himself.

"No time to talk! Gather all you troops, commander!" urged Katniss.

"Ok!"

The meeting disbanded hurriedly again. Adam went to get his air force pilots, and the commander went to gather his army. Katniss and Peeta went to the city monitory and informed the city on the large attack. Their sweating faces were shown all across the big screens of the city. Out of the window, Katniss saw the citizens rushing underground into cover. Adam and the commander, Rufus, had finished gathering their armies. Together, they all rushed onto the battlefield to face the rebels. She knew they could not defeat their vast army, but only time would be able to prove that. Her heart thumped, and she could also see Peeta beside her, swallowing anxiously.

Finally, the two armies reached firing range and they used their guns to try beat the Capitol. Katniss's army was mowing down the rebels, but they just kept on coming. From behind the enemy soldiers, the tanks and aircraft opened fire and blew up tens of soldiers at a time. On the other hand, the Capitol's army had tanks as well, but fired too late and blew up before even aiming correctly. Across 5 meters away, Katniss heard Rufus screaming at her, saying "Take Peeta and retreat! You wouldn't be able to last long here!"

She knew he was right, and she and Peeta fled. Katniss felt guilty, fleeing away like a coward. But there was no choice. Just as she reached the city border, she saw that the rebels' army only had tanks and aircraft left. But her army only had one working tank, 2 aircrafts, and 100 soldiers left. She was unsure of who would win, and opened a secret trapdoor and jumped down with Peeta. Through the cameras hidden around the districts, she saw that her army had lost. Now the terrible old Capitol had returned into power in only a few hours of struggle.


	3. Chapter 2: Capitol Reclaimed

The citizens had been spared, but "for the hunger games" the Capitol had said menacingly. The words hunger games struck fear into everyone. The citizens were forced back and split into different districts again-12 once more. Katniss was incredibly lucky they put her with her family, Peeta and Rue. Even though Rue was already 15, she was still confused in what had happened, as so many things had happened at once. Nether Katniss nor Peeta explained. They had been put into district 4 this time. District 4 used to be a Career district. Thinking of District 4, she also thought of her long dead friend Finnick Odair, who saved her during the rebellion of the districts. Now that the old Capitol was back in power, the hunger games were more harsh, because the Capitol wanted to get revenge. They place signs all over the place to really make the point, although Katniss didn't see the need of signs.

A few days later, the Capitol displayed their new renovation on the city. They changed it back to their old posh way, in only a few days. And then came the hunger games again. Along with the city, the engineers had also designed the deadly hunger games arenas again. The announcement of the dreadful hunger games finally came across the speakers once more. The tributes were to be hand picked, and the chosen arena was a mixed one, with mountains, plains, deserts, forests and all. There were to be 24 tributes, 2 from each districts. Pretty much the old hunger games. But, the tributes only had a day in the training centre and then straight to the games, because the Capitol wanted revenge fast. Instead of sponsors, there was going to be hidden chests of resources everywhere. Katniss and Peeta hugged Rue, hoping she wouldn't get picked. There was not going to be any volunteers this time. They went together to District 4's town centre, which looked far better than district 12's because district four was one of the most wealthiest districts. There was a person, guarded by peacemakers now back to peacekeepers, and the person was the one who picked the tributes. She made a speech, how the Districts shouldn't have rebelled, and how the Capitol wants them never to rebel again. After that, anxiety filled the air and everyone waited tensely for the person, whose name was Magnie Chaingold, to pick the tributes. Katniss felt she didn't want to live any more as Magnie pointed straight at Rue with an evil stare. "You!" she screeched in a very high pitched voice. "Come up! You're the one!" Yes, you!" Rue looked extremely shocked, but not as afraid as Katniss's sister Prim had looked as she had gone up because Rue had never seen a hunger games, and it was like reading about gladiators fighting in the Coliseum, which wasn't frightening as you would be sitting there reading a book. She walked slowly up onto the stage, and then Magnie picked the boy. The boy was called Bovnard Trinket. Rue muttered, "oh no." because Bovnard and her had had bad history. Bovnard was jealous of Rue being the Queen's daughter.

There was no time for farewells; the train took off almost immediately. All that was managed was a wave, and the bullet train disappeared into the mountains. Rue sat at one end of the train, and Bovnard sat as far as he could from her. They were both silent for the hole trip, and turned down delicious Capitol food, which they hadn't had for weeks. Finally, after a few hours, did Rue give in to hunger and gulped down a plate of fruit and chocolate. It took 6 hours to get to the Capitol, and Rue was surprised at how it looked now. It had no trace of the old Capitol she knew.

As they steped off the train Bovnard and her kept as far away from each other as possible. They grouped together with the other tributes. They didn't have their own rooms because they were only going to train for one night and leave the next. Rue knew none of the tributes because she had stayed inside the capitol building by herself all the time, and she didn't really like to socialize. They were lead to the training centre, and no one said anything along the way. They were left there, and another squad of peacekeepers came and instructed them to learn all they need to prepare for the hunger games. Rue was pretty good at agility and fighting skills because Katniss had taught her, so she went over to the fire-lighting station. She got shown the different types of wood and rocks that could be found in the arena and used for a fire.

They were going to use weapons in the old days, like swords, spears, daggers, and bows.

Rue went to the food station after to master the types of berries and edible plants found in the arena, and what types of stuff not to eat. Afterwards she went to recognize different animals, and whether they were harmless or harmful, poisonous or no. All that training took 5 hours already, and she spent a bit of time socializing with other people and considering allies. As she was chatting with a girl from district 12 called Maria, she saw Bovnard throw a massive weighted ball to improve his strength. It sent a shudder through her body. There were two massive boys from district 1 who were the baddest school bullies back at school in the old Capitol. They stood around doing nothing and acted like they knew everything already. Soon the training time was over. It was 9:00pm and they were to expect the last well rested night for the rest of their lives(not long). But Rue was busy lying in her big fluffy bed thinking about what the arena would be like. Soon she was asleep and snoring after a hard day of training.

Early in the morning, the tributes got woken up and were told to get dressed. Rue got a green tribute uniform, which would be useful to camouflage in the forest part of the arena. The uniform was tight for swimming, long sleeved to keep out the insects, and also smooth. They were also given a pair of all-round shoes, which were good as it had grip for running on slippery surfaces and climbing mountains, comfortability for the harsh terrain, waterproof covers for water, and more awesome abilities. Each district's tributes got split up again and Rue and Bovnard were walking side by side for the first time. They completely ignored each other. Guarded by peacekeepers, they were led into a small room with two glass tubes. Rue and Bovnard each went into one. When they were set, they shot up the tube with a popping sound. The next minute they were standing on metal plates in the grass plains of the arena, staring at a huge golden cornucopia. There were hundreds of items laid out near and in the cornucopia, backpacks, weapons, food, water, and more valuable resources. When all the tributes were ready, the countdown began.


	4. Chapter 3: 76th Hunger Games- Begin!

Rue looked left and right and saw many teenagers of different sizes. They were all focused on the cornucopia. Suddenly, a massive deep voice boomed out of speakers attached to the beyond-sight roof of the arena. It was counting down from 10. Every second the atmosphere grew more tense. 9...8...7...6... Rue was sweating under her tight clothing.5...4...3...2...1... GO! Rue sprinted for her life as if she was getting chased by maniacal killers. She was, but they weren't exactly maniacal, they were killing for their own life. Rue seemed to be the fastest of them all, because she got there first. So she went as far in as she could and picked up a big bag, 2 knives, and bow. She reached for the arrows, but they were snatched away. She looked up and saw a small boy standing there, looking afraid. Rue didn't feel like killing, so she got a sword that was next to her and ran past the cornucopia. When she lifted her head to see where she was heading, she saw the desert. She moaned. Why did it have to be the desert?

When she got there, the bloodbath at the cornucopia had already ended. Blood was splattered all over items and the ground. Blood made the cornucopia an eerie red colour. Blood made things glisten in the sun. Just then, Rue tripped on something solid, and noticed it was a chest. Her spirits lifted a little, and she opened it to see what was inside. A bottle of water! Vital for survival. Even though she had water, she thought the desert wasn't a good idea so she headed for the mountains instead. She found a little cave and went in. She put her bow, knives and sword on the side, and after a good little rest from all the running and a sip of water, she opened the bag to see what was inside. The bag was about half the size as she was, which is massive. The first thing that came to her grip was a can of tuna. She licked her lips and set it aside with the bottle of water, separate from the weapons. Next there was a short line attached to a fishing hook, which she could use to catch fish if she could find any. She put that in another pile, her tools pile. Then there were two knives, one for gutting, one for skinning. They went with the tools pile.

After the knives came something that took a lot of the space in the bag up, an ezy-fold tent. She took that out and felt that it wouldn't be of much use as it would be too easy to see. She sadly put it on a 'useless' side. The tent would have been perfect for camping if she was not in the hunger games though. Under the tent was another bottle of water, though smaller than the one from the chest. beside that was a pack of plasters. That was all. She was pretty satisfied with what was in the bag. Packing everything up, she put the two double-edged killing knives in her belt and slung the bow over her shoulder after the bag. She kept the sword clutched in her hand, and off she went. The shoes were very comfortable, and it made walking a bit easier than usual. Suddenly, she saw a small boy stick his head out of the bushes in the forest. The forest was very far away, so the boy looked like a dot. The boy hadn't seen Rue yet. She ducked behind a boulder. After checking the coast was clear, he cautiously crawled across the plains, not wanting to be seen.

Rue saw the boy had HER arrows in a quiver slung across his shoulder. She really wanted that quiver of arrows, because her best weapon was the bow, as Katniss had taught her how to use it. It seemed that the boy was crawling towards her boulder, so she got ready to strike. Rue really didn't want to do it, but she had to for her own good. She lifted her sword, but heard a little yelp, "Eek!" She poked her head around the boulder to see Maria standing over him, triumphantly holding the arrows. Maria was looting the boy, and suddenly Rue had an idea. She yelled "Hey Maria! Over here!" Rue wanted to be allies with Maria, but it was all up to Maria to make the decision. Maria came trudging over, her shoes wet.

"Hi Rue!" she cried when she arrived. "I see you've got the bow."

"Yes I do. Wanna be allies?"

"Sure."

That's how Rue happily got her first ally.

"I know where Bovnard's little camp setup is," said Maria. "Want to go to it?"

"Sure, but not to do anything bad..." said Rue.

"You said you didn't like him." replied Maria.

"But I'm not the killing type of person."said Rue, horrified that Maria actually _wanted _to kill. "But let's just go see what he's up to."

So together we trekked off into the desert, Maria leading the way. They were drinking water every few seconds, as the scorching sun was killing them. At last the end of the desert came and the mountains loomed up in front of them. Maria pointed up the mountain. "There,"she said, "Bovnard made his camp in a cave at the top, along with his two allies, who are the big bullies of the school in the old Capitol. "_What?!"_ Rue cried. She knew Bovnard didn't like her, but she never knew he made friends with such bad people. Rage started building up inside her and she wanted to bash his face inside out. "Let's go." She said to Maria. Maria nodded. The mountain had a rugged spiral slope, which they used to climb up the mountain until the path ended. Then they had to use their grippy shoes and scale the rest of the mountain. All was going well, until Rue lost her grip and slipped. She tried desperately to get a handhold, but the rough rocks just cut her skin. By the time she fell onto the soft sandy bottom of the mountain, her hands were bleeding and her back was hurting from the midair flip. She put a plaster on a big cut on her palm.

Maria climbed back down and helped her up. It wasn't easy to climb such a large mountain. But they desperately wanted to attack Bovnard so they tried again, and this time they succeeded. They finally reached the cave that Bovnard was in, but it was empty... except for some valuable resources! Bovnard and his friends must have gone out to search for something like food or water, and idiotically left their camp unguarded. They crept inside alertly, and took a mean looking knife for Maria, who had no weapons at all. Rue took a bright orange drink bottle from a shelf-like rock. It was squashy, but held plenty of water. Suddenly, they heard voices outside. Rue peeked out the side of the cave, and saw Bovnard and his fat and muscly friends climbing the mountain.

"We've got to leave now!" cried Rue urgently.

"Why?"

"They're coming back!"

Maria peeked outside the cave too, and saw the bulky figures too.

"Oh no..." she muttered.

They climbed out of the cave and tried to sneak away, but Bovnard saw them crawl out. "Hey! They're over there!" He shouted to his friends. The gang was half way up the mountain. Rue and Maria were at a position with an advantage. Rue scurried back to the cave and heaved out a heavy rock and chucked it down the side of the mountain. Bovnard's tall and muscly ally on his left, Bulk, cried out "Look out!" and all of their eyes widened in terror. The rock bowled Bulk down the mountain, and Bulk lay motionless down the mountain with a heavy rock on him. "You!..." said Noddie, Bovnard's other friend, through gritted teeth. Like an enraged ape, Noddie climbed up the rest of the mountain without stopping while shouting like a lunatic. Rue and Maria dodged to the side just as Noddie tried to bowl them over. Noddie lost his balance and went smashing inside the cave. The two allies jumped down a quarter of the mountain onto a grassless ledge, and Maria nearly slipped off the loose dirt. Rue grabbed on to Maria to let her gain her balance. Together, they climbed down the mountain and sprinted for their lives as an angry Bovnard gave chase. Noddie leapt off the incredibly tall mountain in rage and landed in a small pool of water Rue hadn't seen before. He joined Bovnard in the chase.


	5. Chapter 4: Hunted

Soon they reached the mysterious forest with tall trees and wild animals. What danger could lurk inside? After stopping for a second before entering the forest, they saw that Bovnard was still tirelessly chasing them, his leg muscles bulging. Noddie still had that noddy look on his round face. He was panting really heavily. Rue and Maria both turned around at the same time and reluctantly bolted inside the forest, dodging damp tree trunks and wet streams. Abruptly, Rue tripped over a rock and flew and banged her head against the only branch of a weak tree, and made the branch snap. Luckily the wood was rotten or she might already have a swollen head. Just as she lifted her hand to feel if her head had been bruised, a beautiful melodic tune floated calmly through the forest.

The anxiousness and stress in Rue's stomach and the ache from the bag of her shoulders slowly ebbed away. The tune was overwhelming her, when suddenly Maria, who had left and just noticed she was missing, crashed into view and screamed,

"Hey! What in Panem are you thinking?! Bovnard's catching up fast!"

That shook Rue out of her trance. "Ok-" she replied, but turned to see Maria drifting off along with the music. Again, the comfort of the music started washing over her, but she shook the feeling off and dragged Maria away. Her backpack was killing her. Soon she saw Bovnard and Noddie crash into the place where they had been stuck, and Bovnard pointed towards Rue and panted, "There they are! Finally we gotcha!" As soon as they stepped and advanced on Rue and Maria, Noddie's mouth formed a perfect O and he started shaking his head up and down contentedly in time with the music. He walked over to a collapsed branch and leant against it. He yawned peacefully and closed his eyes, still shaking his chubby face up and down. Bovnard stared at Noddie with a bewildered look on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out but a yawn. Bovnard's eyes started to flutter, and he reached a hand towards Rue and Maria but instantly dropped to the ground, snoring. Exhausted, neither of them said anything for the rest of the day.

Rue got woken up in the middle of the night. It seemed that the Capitol hadn't totally remade the hunger games yet in such a small time. In a book she had read about there being the faces of the dead being projected in the night sky, and it looked like the technology hasn't been renewed yet. She jumped down from the branch she was sleeping on silently and landed on all fours.

There was a threatening snap of a twig nearby. Surely it couldn't be Bovnard, because he wouldn't have been able to find them in such a short amount of time. There was another snapping sound and the rustling of leaves. She leaped onto a low branch and then onto a higher one. Carefully unhooking her bow from a branch and taking an arrow from her quiver on the tree, she readied the bow and calmed down. Rue always felt safer with a bow in hand.

She almost lost herself in thought again in how she learnt archery from her mother, when suddenly a small figure stumbled into view. From the bushes, she could see the hair of someone directly below her. She tensed, knowing that a single move could give her away. When he or she thought no one was around, the person stupidly got out a flint and steel from his or her small shoulder bag and lit a fire on a pile of firewood he/she collected.

What a stupid person! Wow. Rue couldn't see the face of the person because he or she was looking down calmly at the firewood as if it was the fireplace of his home. Slowly, Rue started to realize that since she was directly above the fire, the smoke was suffocating her. She tried to hide her lungs' desire to cough, but she couldn't hold out any longer and she coughed loudly, so loud it roused Maria from her sleep.

Maria kept silent as she saw the person, but the person on the floor looked around him/herself, looked up, and saw Rue's terrorized face. With an elegant flick of her wrist, the girl on the floor unleashed 3 nasty looking knives that embedded themselves into the branches next to Rue. If she hadn't moved, then she would've had 3 knives protruding from her. She glanced frightened at the knives, but when she turned back the girl wasn't there anymore. Rue looked up just fast enough to see her rushing at her from a branch. She braced herself for a painful landing as the small but solid girl bashed into her, and pushing her into a pile of berry bushes. Both of them were covered in delicious berry juice, but it didn't matter because one of them wouldn't be able to taste it after. The small girl bared her teeth, which were as sharp as knives.

She viciously snapped at Rue, who could only push the girl away to avoid getting bitten. Her teeth sounded like a mousetrap as it open and shut. Rue saw Maria perched fearfully on the tree she was on. Maria was nocking an arrow, but her attempts failed as the arrow kept on swinging to one side. She got annoyed and hung the bow back onto a branch. Instead, she plucked out the knives the girl had thrown from the branches and threw them at the girl like darts. But the girl had fast reflexes, she heard the whistling as the knife travelled through the air and jumped to one side. One knife skimmed a bit of skin off her right shin, but luckily the others missed their target. "Ow!" she moaned, as she had never experienced any pain before other than minor cuts and bruises.

The girl disappeared in a blink of an eye. She escaped before Rue even stood up. Without thinking, she ran after the girl and went the direction she went. As soon as she ran 5 meters, Rue tripped over a tripwire the girl had set up lightning fast. She went tumbling over, and got stuck in a net trap. "Ahhh!" she screamed loudly, Maria came rushing to her, but not before the other girl appeared with her buddy, a taller but skinny boy. He held a spear with a sharp end and a hook at the bottom.

Suddenly memories flashed in her mind of how Katniss had told her stores of a girl in the 74th hunger games, also called Rue and was Katniss's ally, got hooked in a net and killed by a boy with a spear. She was about to suffer the same fate. Using her brain, she figured the net was stretchy. She saw the boy aiming his spear, and he threw. Maria screeched in terror, but just before the spear reached her Rue threw herself up and stretched the net down, and the spear snapped the rope holding the net in two.

Without hesitation, Maria rushed over and sawed a gap in the net, through which Rue climbed out. By then, the boy and girl had fled. But just as if the arena didn't want Rue and Maria to rest, they heard crashing sounds and panting behind them. "There!" came a familiar voice. They turned to see Noddie and Bovnard again. Bovnard snarled and sprinted towards them. It looked like the two savages were dying of thirst because their lips were cracked and they looked dehydrated in every way.

Rue and Maria were helpless in the middle of the forest with nowhere to go, but instead Bovnard dived towards the water bottle hanging off Maria's shoulder. His strength sent Maria toppling back over and the leather string to snap like thread. He ripped off the corked lid and drank like it was the last thing he would do in his life. When he was satisfied, he tossed the bottle to Noddie, who drank the all of the quarter-full bottle.

When they were done, they bolted away from them. Rue and Maria did not know why, but they decided to follow.


	6. Chapter 5: Power of Friendship

Bovnard and Noddie stumbled into a clearing in the middle of the forest with a sparkling lake. Without any hesitation, they both didn't bother taking off their clothes and dived straight into the refreshing water. Luckily for them it wasn't a trap. They looked relieved as they splashed about and gulped down galleons of water. None of them knew that Rue and Maria were spying on them.

Rue had an idea and drew out the bottle of green liquid. It was her first time having a close look, and it said, 'Caution, dangerous poison. Burns skin and causes bad skin peeling. Does not kill.' She beckoned for Maria to follow her. Together they quietly tread towards the end of the lake closest to the bushes and lied down in the tall grass. They crawled forwards until they reached the edge of the lake and Maria carefully uncapped the dangerous bottle. After filling their own drink bottles, Rue shot up like an automatic scarecrow and shouted, "Hey idiots! Over here!"

The only reaction made by Bovnard and Noddie was to paddle their way towards Rue as fast as they could. When they were about 10 meters from them, Maria, who was still hidden from view in the grass, threw the uncapped bottle over to where Bovnard and Noddie were. They looked around them and laughed as they saw the bottle sink to the bottom of the lake. Just as Bovnard and Noddie were about to continue towards them, they looked bewildered as the water around them turned a sickly green.

"Ahhh! Poison!" raged Noddie.

"Quick, get out of the lake!" cried Bovnard.

They were desperately wading towards the bank of the lake, but Noddie's muscles were paralyzing slowly.

"Bovnard, help!" he cried. Bovnard looked back at him unsympathetically.

"No! Hurry up! My skin is already burning so painfully!" said Bovnard through gritted teeth.

But still, Bovnard lent Noddie a hand, as he didn't want to lose his only ally left. He squeezed his eyes and heaved Noddie towards him, and when he did, he saw massive blisters on Noddie's shin. Noddie's skin-tight long leggings had now disintegrated to only go up to his knees. Bovnard felt the prickly-feeling water try to puncture his skin, but his will and fury for revenge made him endure his pain and at last he reached the river bank. He lay there panting for a few seconds, before waking Noddie from his faint and they awkwardly stumbled off together. He took a last hateful glance towards Rue.

A chill went up her spine as Rue saw what the poison had done. Bovnard had suffered from peeling skin and blisters, and Noddie's legs were nearly completely burnt to the bone, and also had massive blisters. As if in cue of Bovnard leaving, an unwary little boy ran panting into the clearing from the other side of the lake that Rue and Maria was at. They hid in the grass. His eyes wide as he saw the refreshing looking lake. He unzipped a coat he had found and waddled into the water. He hadn't felt anything, until he swam near the center of the lake. The boy's face started to paralyze with fear, and his right arm spasmed uncontrollably. Next, he vomited and started to sink, when suddenly a massive extinct muttation of a shark burst out of the water and swallowed the boy whole.

All this time, Rue was holding her breath, without noticing. She exhaled deeply, trying to calm herself down. Without delay, she lowered her head and jogged back towards their tree camp they had abandoned earlier.

When she reached their camp, she was relieved to find out that no one had stolen anything. They gathered up their stuff, and when they were just about to leave, they heard a voice behind them. It sounded very confident, as if the voice's owner was their friend. In fact, it was actually Rue's only friend before the hunger games. The voice belonged to Jacob, which was their top mechanic's son. The top mechanic was in the same hunger games as Katniss, and was also part of the rebellion. He was Beetee. Jacob could make a lot of amazing stuff with bits and pieces no one else would need. He stepped out. Maria was about to lunge at Jacob, when Rue cried, "No! He's my friend!" Maria calmed down.

"How come I didn't see you at the training center nor the start of the arena?" asked Maria, jabbing a finger at his chest.

"Watch this." he answered. He disappeared with a 'zzz' sound, like a fly getting zapped. An invisible hand touched Rue, and she yelped in alarm. Jacob then materialized behind her. Rue was confident if Jacob was on her team. Now their team of three was nearly unbeatable. Jacob had an idea of laying a trap out. He used a piece of scrap metal and sharpened its sides with a knife borrowed from Rue. While he set up his trap, Maria went to gather berries and Rue went to hunt for food. He tied the metal to a super strong acid-enhanced rope, and connected it to a super stretchy elastic band hidden in the bushes. Then the wire was joined to the tree, and afterwards the metal was hidden. Then he put a little square object, with a red turned off LED light and a pixelated screen, on the wire. "Oh, this is going to be painful." He wiped his hands on his shirt and went to find Maria. Rue had killed a duck, which they roasted over a safe fire, surrounded by Jacob's traps, and ate savagely.

Soon, as they had expected, someone found them. Obviously it wasn't Bovnard or Noddie, as they would still be recovering from their wounds. It was a bulk of a girl, the size of hulk. She was totally out of control; her eyes were blank, strings of saliva swung from her mouth, and she shook her head like a wild boar. She hissed menacingly as she charged, but stepped on the metal Jacob had set up, which, powered by the elastic, fired up an cut an incredibly deep gash right up behind her legs. She half screamed half growled, and then limped towards the trio. Blood squirted out of the nasty wound with each step, stopping the wild girl in her tracks. Jacob's trap had just saved their lives. But with her last bit of energy, as she turned white, the girl grabbed Maria in a crushing bear hug.

Rue watched in horror for a second as Maria got the air driven out of her lungs, and then acted. But before she even took a step, Jacob calmly took out a controller from his pocket and pressed a big red button in the middle of it. The box on the wire made a 'zzz' sound and the red LED light lit up. The metal was still painfully wedged inside the girl's skin, and the wire connected to it suddenly fizzed to life, channeling bright yellow electricity through it. The metal made the electricity even stronger, and the girl got paralyzed and Maria slid out of the girl's grip, relieved of being rescued.

"Oh my god, thank you so much!" she weeped as Rue hugged her.

"No problemo." said Jacob as if he was a superhero who saved a cat stuck in a tree.

"Jacob, you have to take this seriously! This isn't a game where you have infinite lives and restart if you die!" said Rue, starting to notice Jacob's true arrogant personality. He was literally the exact opposite of his father Beetee. Beetee was quite skinny, while Jacob was well fed and looked strong and had a round build, but was not fat. Beetee didn't like to talk and boast about his creations, while Jacob just had to let the world know about his.

"Ok. Sure." was his reply.


	7. Chapter 6: The Capitol

Back at the makeshift hunger games control room, queen Effie Trinket was incredibly surprised and mad to see her son Bovnard in the hunger games. She had undergone a tough decision 100 years ago, to decide whether to join the capitol or the rebels. Although the rebels were tempting, she snuck to the capitol's side and soon knew her decision was good, as she became queen of the capitol. She did not know how her son had joined the districts, because he had hated the districts. But she commanded immediate orders of Bovnard to be shipped out of the arena. The capitol sent one of their hidden aircrafts and snuck a bloody and swollen Bovnard out of the arena, leaving poor confused Noddie alone.

Effie wasn't surprised that Rue had done this to Bovnard, as Effie didn't underestimate her and knew she was the daughter of Katniss Everdeen. She had once been a half-friend of Katniss, but soon disliked her because of her signs of rebellion. Effie decided she liked the capitol more than Katniss. Therefore it lead to her disliking Rue, even more after what she had done to her beloved son.

A few minutes later, Bovnard arrived at the capitol's metal-padded room full of portable plug-in computers and control panels. A look from Effie sent Bovnard into the hospital. Then Effie turned her concentration on the screens of the games. She ordered beastly muttations to be sent to Rue's destination immediately, and dropped Noddie a bunch of awesome presents, including medicine, weapons, and some armour and food anonymously. She wanted to do anything she could to make Rue's hunger games life harder without letting the districts' audience realize. Soon, Rue was surrounded by muttations in a jungle clearing. Her friends were nowhere nearby, so it appeared that they were nearby looking for food or something. Effie looked at Jacob's screen and saw he was heading towards exactly where she wanted him to go. She pressed a red button on the control panel and saw a massive dark shape rise from the underground 500 meters in Jacob's direction. As for Maria, she was already heading towards a fatal trap.


	8. Chapter 7: Unfair Advantages

Rue's heart pounded furiously inside her chest. There were 10 wolf-like creatures surrounding her, each with blank yellow eyes and teeth that jutted forward out of the creatures' jaws. Sticky saliva strung from their jaws. They paced neatly around Rue, perfectly in time with each other as if they were robots programmed to do exactly the same thing. All that Rue had that was useful was a bow and a saw-edged knife. She had no space to use the bow, so her life was dependent on the knife. But instead of recklessly charging, Rue took in her surroundings. A jungle biome, perfect for losing these agile but brainless mutts. She scrambled clumsily up a thick jungle tree, but instantly came face to face with a bright purple bird with a blade instead of a beak. It made a metallic screeching sound from its throat and the sound made Rue's muscled loosen, making her fall.

Rue was incredibly lucky she threw her arms out to soften her fall, because she was still holding the knife. She landed on a mutt, who had its mouth open ready for a meal. The knife in her hand pierced through the muttation's throat and stopped. The knife was handle-deep into the creature. She disgustedly pulled it out, and a still half-beating heart came out with it. Rue nearly fainted in disgust as she tried to scrape it off, but she didn't forget about the other mutts. 1 down, 9 to go. Oh god.

Jacob stared in awe at a massive structure made of stone and covered with moss. It had a dull entrance, and above the entrance were the words 'Enter If You Dare - Technology Challenges.' engraved in the building. Jacob stared open-mouthed, until he read 'Technology Challenges,' then he said to himself, 'Sweet!'

Somehow, torches were burning inside as if the mossy building was quite new. The walls were massive circuit boards, and Jacob knew all about them. In front of him loomed a giant metal door, which was impossible to move by strength. He looked around carefully and cried, 'Aha!' as he saw a big electromagnet with the resources for solving the challenges next to it. There was a big power pack, two crocodile clips, copper wire, a small but incredibly powerful electromagnet if activated, and 2 wires with double sided plugs.

Jacob went straight to work. He switched the power pack on first. Then he inserted a plug into the red hole, and the other plug into the black hole. Then he attached the ends of both plugs into the back of a crocodile clip each. He wrapped the copper wire around the electromagnet as many times as he could, as it would conduct the electricity more. He left just enough wire on both ends to attach a crocodile clip to each end. 'Yes!' he said as he finished his design. He put the magnet against the wall, expecting the door to swing open. Nothing happened.

Jacob was puzzled for a while, but suddenly realized he had forgotten to scrape the thin plastic coating off the ends of the copper wire where the crocodile clips were. He scraped the coating off with the teeth of the crocodile clips, and saw the wire ends turn a lighter colour. Good, he thought. He turned on the power pack again and stuck the magnet against the wall. The heavy metal door swung open so quickly that Jacob's fingers nearly got cut off by the door. He was just fast enough to move his hand. Although he felt triumphant, he started to wonder why he came in in the first place, because it didn't say there was a prize for this or anything.

Maria felt loved. She received four presents in parachutes in 4 minutes. The first one she received was a torch. The second was a raincoat, though it didn't rain much. The third one was an axe, which was useful, and the fourth one was a hockey puck. She had no idea why these presents were sent, but she was very thankful towards whoever did send them. The axe acted as a good weapon, the raincoat, which she coated with mud, was a good camouflage, the torch was obviously useful, but the puck was still unused. But just as she put the supplies in her bag, she heard Rue calling out.

She arrived at the clearing and saw Rue perched on a branch, with vicious hound-like creatures trying to grab her with their jaws. 9 in total, not counting the one lying on the floor with a heart next to it(I wonder what happened).Rue was trying to shoot the dogs with her bow and arrows, but the branch above her blocked her arm. Maria threw her axe at full speed, and the axe wedged itself in a mutt's flank. It crumpled onto the floor, lifeless. Then Maria drew the knife she took from Bovnard's camp and tried to saw through a mutt's flesh, which was harder than she thought. But as she was about to pierce the hound's skin, an arrow went straight through the muttation. Rue had jumped from the tree and shot straight down. 7 mutts left. One bit onto Maria's knife, and Maria threw the knife away because the saliva probably had rabies. As Rue used her dagger to cut at the mutt who had bitten Maria's knife, Maria went to retrieve her axe.

Jacob was very lucky he hadn't played too many computer games, or else his eyesight wouldn't have been sharp enough to spot the tens of incredibly thin and sharp wires strung across the corridor. The corridor smelt really old and rotten, but the wire looked quite new. At a glance, he knew that cutting the wire would be deadly and dangerous. He looked around, and spotted nothing that caught his eye. But he did notice a button that looked like part of the wall. He pressed it and covered his head, but the walls on either sides moved apart to reveal the complex of wires and circuits that the thin wires were connected to. The wires were getting stretched by electric currents, so he figured that if he disabled the electric current the wires would become loose and safe. Somehow he needed to make a circuit breaker and connect it to the system.


	9. Chapter 8: Challenges Continue

Maria passed the axe to Rue, and Rue gave Maria another knife, because Rue was better with an axe, and Maria was also better with a knife.

They were still surrounded, even though they had killed 3. While Maria distracted the wolves, Rue sprinted to the other end of the clearing with her axe over her shoulder.

The mutts were all focused on Maria, and when one was advancing, Rue threw the axe and tried to hit the one closest to herself, but it missed, and the deadly end of the axe spun towards Maria's throat.

Luckily, the wolf that was advancing pounced at the exact time, and the axe buried its end into the mutt's head instead. Maria exhaled with relief, and cut away another mutt who was going for her head. 5 down, 5 to go.

Jacob picked up a breaker base from the floor. Using a knife, he cut a square piece of metal incredibly precisely to make the stationary contact and the moving contact.

After making that, he built the terminal and connected the stationary contact onto it.

Picking up a nail, he sealed the nail into the moving contact, and screwed the end onto the switch, and screwed the middle of the switch into the base tightly.

He created a 7 shaped catch, and he connected a thick copper wire to the rectangle electromagnet. He made another terminal, this time a line with a button shaped groove on top, and screwed it onto the electromagnet. Done!

After Rue retrieved her axe, Maria and Rue went up a tree, and calmed down. They were both sweating, and had a few scratch marks from the mutts' claws.

Rue thought, _if only I could get the bow... _and told Maria to cut a length of vine from next to their tree. Maria retrieved a reasonable length, and Rue made a lasso, which made her feel like a cowboy from... a seemingly long time ago. She swung the hoop over her head and threw the lasso out towards the bow on the ground in the middle of the clearing, but the vine was too weak and snapped right after she threw it.

Rue had a new plan, but it was dangerous. Maria snapped a branch of the tree, and prodded the hounds with the stick, annoying them. A few of the hounds clenched their teeth on the stick, but Maria swung them loose.

As soon as Rue thought the hounds were stuck in Maria's stick prodding game, she leapt gracefully off the tree and landed with a roll, right next to the bow. She snatched it up and shot an arrow from the quiver next to where the bow was lying before. She took down two at once. 7 down, three to go.

Jacob connected the circuit breaker to the wiring system holding the thin string. His breaker made a satisfying click sound, which assured him it was properly connected. Now he had to find a way to overcharge the system.

He grabbed out the taser he found from the wild girl's belt and put it on the ground, ready for use. He switched he circuit breaker he made on, and saw the fat copper wire hum to life. The electromagnet was on the verge of pulling the metal lever down, and a sudden wave of electricity should activate the magnet. He picked up the taser, and sent a wave into the system.

He could practically see the pulse, it ran through the wiring, into the circuit breaker. The electricity flowed into the breaker from the bottom terminal, and hit the electromagnet. The lever fell with a clinking sound, and the wiring silenced, except for the remaining bit of electricity which ran across the breaker's moving contact, up the stationary contact, and hummed out the upper terminal, and finally disappeared.

Jacob nimbly touched a wire, which gave away like a spider web. One by one, he picked the string away and went through the corridor, and found himself in a small room, with a chest awaiting him. Above it were the words, 'Well done, engineer.' engraved in the stone. He opened the chest and found a pack of engineering stuff in it, and a drink bottle, tweezers, and a knife.

Meanwhile, Rue was trying to pick off the hounds with her arrows, but she had used the same three arrows so many times over and over again that the arrowheads were blunt, and bounced harmlessly off the mutts' skin, leaving nothing but a faint bruise mark. The arrows only made them agitated, so the mutts lost interest in Maria's stick and went for Rue instead.

Maria could only kill one last hound by throwing her knife before the remaining two was on top of Rue. All she had was the axe, which she used to keep the mutts' snapping jaws away. She tried to kick them away, but they were nothing like the soft puppies she expected, but weighed as much as a truck.

Maria watched helplessly as Rue tried to get the hounds off, but she sprang into action a few seconds later. She ran for her dagger, and one of the hounds turned around and went for her, giving Rue room to stand up. Maria grabbed the dagger and leapt out of the way just as the hound sprang at her. In mid-air, she turned around and threw the dagger, which disappeared down the mutt's throat, and it died.

Just when Maria killed that hound, the one in front of Rue perked its ears up and stopped for a second, before running around and eating its dead pack, one by one, whole. For each one, the hound grew bigger a stronger, and its eyes grew redder. When it ate about three, Rue and Maria only then started to realize what was happening, but it was too late. They swung their axe and dagger at the hound, but the weapons just bounced harmlessly off its hide.

When the hound had eaten about 3 more fellows, a ninja star flew out from the bushes and hit the hound. The ninja star bounced harmlessly off as well, but just as Rue and Maria were giving up hope, the ninja star glowed blue and emitted aqua blue electricity, which sparkled a bit before reaching out at the electric tendrils and made a patch of the hound's fur stand on end, as if the electricity were friends with the mutt's fur. The electricity worked like a magnet, pulling the ninja star deep into the hound's skin, and the ninja star ejected a final pulse of high voltage before seemingly running out of battery.

The last wave of electricity quite obviously stopped the hound's heart, because it acted like it had a heart attack. After the hound dropped dead, Jacob came out from the bushes and landed like a ninja, yelling, 'Hiya!' All three of them were grinning from ear to ear, relieved to have escaped from the danger alive.


End file.
